During his lifetime Mendelssohn published six collections with "Lieder ohne Worte". Two more collections were to be published posthumously. With this "Songs without words" he had created a new genre, in which he tried to capture the charm of lyricism with purely instrumental sounds of the piano. On the CD "Songs without words" pianist Murray Perahia performs a number of these "Lieder". He has framed
… this music with a number of arrangements of original songs. The CD opens with four chorale arrangements by Bach, in arrangements for piano by Ferruccio Busoni. The CD ends with a number of well-known songs by Schubert in the arrangement for piano by Franz Liszt. These include the songs "Ständchen" and "Erlkönig". (HJ) _more